It's Not About the Ornaments

When we moved this summer from the apartment into a house, one of our boxes fell off the moving truck and onto a very busy road.  It was flattened within seconds and Nate wasn't even able to go back and get it because of all the traffic.  We couldn't figure out what was in the box, until we started getting our Christmas decorations out this year.  I kept telling Nate that we were missing our box of most precious ornaments.  He looked several times in the garage, but couldn't find the box.  Finally, he realized that our Christmas ornaments that we have enjoyed collecting together over the last 13 years were in the box that was lost in our move.  He gently broke the news to me, knowing how sentimental I would be about it, and I was.  I cried.  For an hour.  Over ornaments. It hurts my heart that they are gone.  Nate proposed to me with a special ornament hanging on the tree beside my diamond ring on Christmas Eve 1998 and since then, Christmas ornaments have been special to us.  We pick one up at every interesting place we visit, and friends and family have also given us many cherished ones.  Lots of love and memories were in that box of ornaments and while we still have the memories, each special ornament sparked the memories and made them extra vivid.

So I cried, and then when I was out of tears, I knew why the Lord allowed this hurt.  It's not about the ornaments. We make Christmas about many things, decorations, and memories and family and all of those things are good, but I know the loss of my ornaments was the Lord's way of redirecting my focus back to Him this year, the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  I have already started replenishing my ornament collection and I will always be sad that we lost 13 years worth of ornaments this year, but I am thankful for the reminder that it's not about the ornaments.